Testimonials

*Scenes from Laurie's art history class (ages 8-12, The Middle Ages)*

These comments and essays were received from students (*) or parents of students who have attended Laurie's classes

Eileen – Jennifer – Joanna – Joanna – Lynette * – Marcel * – Rebecca * – Zuleyma

This "College Essay" was submitted by Marcel, who will be entering Sarah Lawrence College in Fall 2008. He has also written a personal essay.

“To awaken interest and kindle enthusiasm is the sure way to teach easily and successfully.”

—Tryon Edwards

Laurie Spigel’s classes were always uplifting. Interested in her students intellectually, she obviously enjoyed teaching. Lighting up with excitement, she would praise her students’ ideas. Laurie Spigel awakened my interest, kindled my enthusiasm, and became a significant influence in my life.

I met Laurie when I joined a Literature Club for homeschoolers. I found myself becoming comfortable as she offered exciting challenges. Very approachable, her relaxed demeanor created an environment where I read great literature and became the author of successful writings.

Soon I learned how fair-minded she was when teaching her classes. She shared her knowledge of well known authors and guided us as we democratically selected books and voted on what to read. Always respecting her student’s opinions, she honored differing viewpoints. When we read Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, we were turned off by the laborious quality of the novel. Laurie took pleasure in our opinions even though she adored this classic. She also introduced us to novels we all loved, like Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. When students had opposing opinions on J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, Laurie honored everyone’s view. This was an environment where I could voice my openhearted opinions and hear different viewpoints. Entering a burgeoning growth, I became an intelligent reader.

Just as inspiring and reassuring were Laurie’s writing classes. With enthusiasm, she opened my eyes to understanding the uniqueness of poetry. This awareness began to show in my own poems, while my teacher assessed my work and encouraged me. I found myself eagerly wanting to put words on paper. During playwriting class, a long and challenging process, Laurie guided me through character and plot development, helping me create a successful play that I submitted to the Young Playwrights Write a Play! 2007 contest. Directing my play and performing it on stage was a gift that this teacher bestowed to me. The success of my play was a “wow” moment for me and gave me the confidence to write another play. Reaching the end of my high school years, Laurie offered a college essay class introducing me to great essay writers, where I found insightful suggestions that elevated my writing.

I fully appreciate the significant influence that Laurie had on me. Forever changed, I have learned the difference between mediocre and superior work. Inspired and more mature, I now understand the importance of the dynamics between the teacher and the student. I comprehend the connection between successful teaching and successful learning. I reached higher grounds intellectually. I am excited about writing and literature. I will carry into my future a sense of fairness and the guiding force which brings out the best in people.

Marcel Hidalgo

Personal Essay

Last year I did something most teenagers seldom do; I wrote a play. The act of creating an episode in someone’s life fascinated me. Reading many plays in my life had given me the desire to write one. When I heard about the playwriting class, I happily joined.

At the first class I felt unsure about how to approach my writing. My teacher used a strange technique that involved scribbling on paper. Using this scribbled paper we were supposed to use our imagination to find characters. The technique turned me off. I had trouble finding likeable characters. Instead, uninteresting characters popped off the page like a hockey player, a giant, and an airplane. This problem troubled me for awhile.

One day my parents and I went to see my cousin perform at a karaoke bar. It was there that I found the main character for my play. He was leaning over the bar drinking a beer. Suddenly I saw a sliver of my character’s life before my eyes, a man saddened by a loss. Eager to put my ideas on paper, I rushed home and Jimmy was born.

Creating profiles for my character that included date of birth, dreams and fears, I presented them to my teacher. Even though I did not find my character on the scribble page, my teacher was delighted. She led me to the next step, getting to know my character inside and out.

I began speaking to my character through letters. It was in the letters that I learned about Jimmy’s son, Robert. And so the birth of another character was manifested. Inspiration is bizarre. The real Jimmy, the man at the bar, appeared regretful. Although I did not talk to him, he fueled my creativity. I had a feeling that he had a troubled past and was using the bar to escape. The bar kept him alive. Coming up with the missing parts of what I didn’t know about him was my job. And now my task was finding out why Jimmy felt regretful. As the gods of creativity moved my fingers around the keyboard, I learned about Jimmy. I learned about him being a baseball couch, the alcoholism that caused his wife and son to leave him, and how he lived by himself.

I began writing, with my teacher helping as needed. I developed a conflict and breaking point for my characters. After many revisions, I had my play. Soon, professional actors would cold read the class plays.

As the actors recited the lines of my play, nervousness flowed through my veins. Feeling the tensions build between my two characters, I was on the edge of my seat. I watched the actors in disbelief as I realized the rewards for my hard work. After the last line, hearing loud clapping behind me, I got up and bowed.

My play was successful. Grabbing the story from somewhere, I composed a moment in someone’s life and told a heartfelt story. Touching the audience, I had stepped into the world of playwriting.

Marcel Hidalgo

This "Essay on Learning" was submitted by Rebecca as part of the entrance requirements of Sarah Lawrence College. She was accepted.

“The best part of one’s life is the working part, the creative part. Believe me, I love to succeed but the real spiritual and emotional excitement is in the doing.”

--Garson Kanin

People learn for different reasons. Some are motivated by the successful feeling they get from straight A’s or a perfect SAT score. I, however, study a subject not to achieve prestige through good grades, but to gain deeper knowledge and more adept skills. I love to learn simply for the sake of learning. My teacher, Laurie Spigel, gave me the gift of loving to learn. Laurie taught creative writing with contagious enthusiasm. Her classes were never graded, yet I worked harder and more zealously on her assignments than any graded project I was ever given. To learn for the love of learning was a powerful lesson for me.

In seventh grade, I joined Laurie’s poetry and literature class. During my first class, I anxiously worried if my writing would be good enough, and if the teacher would be angry if I did something wrong. Laurie quickly assuaged the fears I had about writing. She told me that silly poems were just as good as serious ones. Poetry was not about making complete sense but creativity and expression. In class, she didn’t stand and lecture us with a diagram and laser pointer. She sat beside us and worked like our teammate instead of our coach. Best of all, she never forced me to show my writing to the class if I did not want to. I felt safe enough to learn at my own pace. Within a month, I was one of the first students to volunteer to read aloud. Losing my self-doubt was the first step in learning to love writing.

The assignments Laurie gave me ensnared my interest and attention immediately. We wrote conventional forms of poetry such as haiku and acrostic, along with forms I had never thought possible. My portfolio is full of blues poems, recipe poems, poems that don’t rhyme, and poems made entirely of sound words. I wrote and illustrated my own children’s book about the life of an actor in ancient Greek theatre. Laurie gave me in-depth constructive criticism. When I had a writing problem, I would work it out with her step by step. Soon I could edit my own work. I was shocked. No one had ever told me writing was actually fun.

My writing grew stronger and stronger the more I desired to practice. It rarely seemed like work. With Laurie, it came as naturally as breathing. My writing was never given a letter stamp of its worth. With each draft of a story, I grew more unhindered by fear. I suppose the lesson I learned from Laurie was bigger than making polished grammatically beautiful writing. It was about growing as a writer, as a person. It showed me that the process was far greater than the product. To learn something is precious and everlasting. A product is temporary; the process is immortal.

Rebecca Marie Sampayo

Read some poems by Laurie's students back to top

"There are so many wonderful reasons I love sending Lynette to Laurie's courses that I have to list them. So here they are:

Lynette always comes home with something wonderful to show for the work she did in Laurie's class (a boardgame, a handmade book of poetry).
Laurie inspires the children to write prolifically, which I myself find a very difficult task.
The result of No. 2 is that the children feel great because they see their creation and know they can do it.
Laurie uses the group setting in very positive ways, for example: as a place for the children to show their work and be proud of themselves, to create a positive (not competitive) atmosphere in which the children work together, help each other and have fun, and she understands the importance of social interaction in the learning experience.
Laurie inspires me to replicate the kind of learning experience she demonstrates in her classes. As a result, I feel our homeschooling experience has been enriched by learning from her example.

Thanks, Laurie!"

Joanna Andreesen

"I like the way Laurie introduced a different poem to us every week. She asked us to write a few poems of that type. That helped me write poetry because I learned different styles of poetry.

Making our own poetry book was pretty cool too."

Lynette Andreesen (age 10)

"Our family first came in contact with Laurie five years ago when we decided to homeschool our two girls. She was referred to us by another homeschooler as 'someone who might be able to help' us with all the paperwork, reporting, fear...etc that most homeschoolers encounter when they start out. Well, what we received from Laurie, was invaluable. She guided us through the process as calmly as only one doing this for 15 years can do, relieved our misgivings, allayed our fears, and basically put us on the right track for everything tangible. Her yearly help with curriculum is indispensable for me even now, after having had some experience. She took the time to not only understand my children's needs and learning styles, but also to understand our needs as a family and how our teaching styles would best serve us and our children.

We have fully taken advantage of the classes she offers and my husband and I are often left feeling that 'we'd like to see a class like that for adults....'

Our oldest daughter began taking Laurie's Poetry/English and Art History classes in the 6th grade after having had very negative experience in public school. Just a few weeks into Laurie's classes, the child who had been labeled 'learning impaired' was coming home exuberant, eager to do more and to write something or make something wonderful for her next class. I am convinced that Laurie's Art History course kindled her artistic fire and got her accepted into La Guardia HS in both the Fine Arts studio as well as the Acting studio. She now understands when she isn't getting what she needs from her instructors (and the fact that sometimes, it IS the instructor) and knows how to get the help she needs.

There is a five-year difference between our two eldest girls and they have both taken Lauries classes at different times. Every product of their classes was different, even though the subject matter may have been the same. There is never the fear that they've gone over this before...because they grow and incorporate that growth into their class projects. Our younger daughter wrote a short one-act play with Laurie's help and now carries around a pen and notepad to write down ideas, thoughts, etc... If she has a question or comes up with a particularly interesting project, she feels comfortable picking up the phone and calling Laurie, who has never failed to give her as much time as she needs to answer her questions or give her ideas on where to go next, treating her with as much respect as she would any adult who happened to call.

In short, more than the academic benefits of classes taught by someone who not only knows the subject matter, but takes the time to make it interesting to the age group she is teaching, my children walked away with a love of learning and a sense of adventure regarding their education. We were reluctant homeschoolers at first, cautious and not sure how long it would last. With Laurie's help, we learned to embrace and enjoy the task at hand and now would not consider raising our family any other way. Coming into contact with Laurie has been the single most empowering event that could have happened to us as a new homeschooling family and being empowered to do great things, we believe, is the greatest gift we give as homeschooling parents."

Zuleyma, mother of three daughters

"Laurie's boundless enthusiasm, inspiration and encouragement transformed my very reluctant writer into a passionate, committed and yes, even prolific writer. Her respect for each child's imagination created a safe environment for the students to express themselves freely and without judgement. Another wonderful bonus from her class has been the close friendships that developed among the teens."

Joanna Lodin (Joe-13, Christopher-11, P.J.-6.5)

"Kristen enjoyed both of your classes. It gave her the opportunity to explore all aspects of playwrighting from writing,and reading through acting. It was a unique way of learning to express their ideas."

Eileen